Personal development is much more than having a good education. We can garner numerous certificates and university degrees and still remain undeveloped as human beings because personal development is more about living out our human potential such that we achieve a deep sense of fulfilment, contentment and inner peace. Too many of us live lives of shadiness, frustration, emptiness and discontent even when we are highly educated, surrounded by wealth and all the things that money can buy. Some 12 years ago, while living in South Africa, I accompanied my good friend and motivational speaker, the late Aubrey Harris, to a rural community in the Free State. There he delivered one of his usual highly stimulating talks to staff and the senior students of a number of secondary schools, who came together for the occasion. During question time one of the male teachers asked a question that has remained with me to this day. The question was: "Why should we develop?" And it was asked in a tone of voice which conveyed the distinct impression of annoyance with being challenged to develop. I was shocked, since I had always taken it for granted that we all seek the development of our families, our communities and ourselves. Why then, should a teacher of children question the need to develop? I have since discovered that the desire to develop ourselves is not universal and that there are many in our midst who are asleep to their potential for greatness.
I believe that all human beings are blessed with the potential to develop and to progressively become better human beings over their lifetime. The growth of civilisation, as we know it, involves the progressive expression of our human potential. The challenge for all of us is:?How do we become aware of our potential so that we are better able to express this potential in the development of our communities, our families and ourselves? Our personal development programme, Leading From Above The Line, challenges each of us to recognise that we all have a certain human potential that cries out to be fulfilled as we make our special contribution to our societies and to wider humanity. To exploit this potential we must first discover ourselves. This means discovering our inner power to help us take charge of our own development and to plot our way forward, despite the many external constraints that we may encounter. Being conscious of our inner power gives us a better sense of self, strengthened self-confidence and the courage to be the moral human being that we would really like to be. Leading From Above The Line recognises that there are five sources from which we can grow our inner power, the first of which is becoming more conscious of the principles that define our humanity.
As human beings, we all have an internal compass that is anchored in the fundamental principles of fairness, integrity, human dignity and the desire for excellence. These are our guidelines for successful living and the more conscious we are of these principles, the more human we become as we express and live-out the human goodness with which we are all endowed. Discovering and living in keeping with our life's purpose is the second source of power in our lives. We all have a purpose in life and when we discover it, we can move from "fighting up" with life to living passionately. Doing our divine will is serving others through the fulfilment of that purpose. Although alike, each one of us is uniquely different from the other. We each have a special purpose in life, which is to fulfil our unique human potential. We are challenged to discover what makes each of us unique-for that is the source of our creativity and our greatness. The third source of power in our lives is emotional mastery. We are all emotional beings who come into the world with powerful negative emotions, which, if left untamed, can destroy us. These negative emotions, such as selfish- ness, arrogance, anger, hatred, aggression, greed, lust and fear, are mostly expressed through our unconscious and more primitive minds and we are challenged to become more conscious of our emotional state such that we can effect self-control through our more conscious minds.
It is a process that requires extensive training throughout our lives, but particularly so in childhood. Without emotional mastery we remain vulnerable to our own self-destruction as is evidenced in the behaviours of many "educated and powerful" people in our society. The fourth source of power is understanding and coming to grips with the changing nature of the world in which we live such that we do not live in a state of fear. It is finding perspective on the world and living in harmony with the world around us. The fifth source of power is knowledge empowerment, which is acquiring the knowledge to help us to better express our divine purpose. This is the knowledge that we should be acquiring as we make our way through our primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions. As you can see, education/ knowledge empowerment alone will not necessarily give us the inner strength that we need to live out our human potential. In addition we need to become more conscious of principle, have a sense of purpose, have emotional mastery and have a better perspective on the world through the understanding of change. When we are able to tap into all these five sources of our inner power we are better able to strengthen our inner selves such that we have greater control over our lives. We need to simultaneously embrace all five sources of our inner power if we are to fully express our inherent development potential and attain the fulfilment, contentment and inner peace that we all desire. In addition to parents, teachers in our educational institutions have a major role to play in the holistic development of the young people of our country. Together, they have an obligation to take responsibility for the overall development of themselves and to serve as role models for the development of our youth.